We show that Larkin-Ovchinnikov (LO) states with modulated superfluid order parameters have a considerably larger range of stability in a lattice than in the continuum. We obtain the phase diagram for the 3D cubic attractive Hubbard model with an unequal population of up and down fermions using the Bogoliubov-de Gennes fully self-consistent method. We find a strong modulation of the local polarization that should provide a distinct signature for detection of the LO phase. The shell structure in the presence of a trap generates singularities in the density at the phase boundaries and provide additional evidence for the LO phase. Depending on specific parameters, the LO ground state occurs over a large range of population imbalance, involving 80% of the atoms in the trap, and can exist up to an entropy s ~ 0.5 k_B per fermion.
We study the angular Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state, in which the rotation symmetry is spontaneously broken, in population imbalanced fermion gases. The superfluid gases at near T=0 are investigated on the basis of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) equation. We find that the angular FFLO state is stabilized in the gases confined in the toroidal trap, but not in the harmonic trap. We discuss the mechanism of the angular FFLO state based on the self-one-dimensionalization of the superfluid gas.
We study an effect of rotation on the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state of two component Fermi superfluid gases in a toroidal trap. We investigate a stability of the FFLO states in the quasi-one-dimensional regime on the basis of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation. We find that two novel FFLO phases, i.e., the half quantum vortex state and the intermediate state of Fulde-Ferrell (FF) state and Larkin-Ovchinnikov (LO) state, are stabilized by the rotation. The phase diagram for the FF state, LO state, intermediate state, and half quantum vortex state is shown in both T-P plane and T-…
Superconductor with a spatially-modulated order parameter is known as Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) superconductor. Using the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau (TDGL) formalism we have theoretically studied the temporal behaviour of the equal-time correlation function, or the structure factor, of a FFLO superconductor following a sudden quench from the unpaired, or normal, state to the FFLO state. We find that quenching into the ordered FFLO phase can reveal the existence of a line in the mean-field phase diagram which cannot be accessed by static properties.
We present the study of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) pairing states in the $p$-orbital bands in both two and three-dimensional optical lattices. Due to the quasi one-dimensional band structure which arises from the unidirectional hopping of the orthogonal $p$-orbitals, the pairing phase space is not affected by spin imbalance. Furthermore, interactions build up high dimensional phase coherence which stabilizes the FFLO states in 2D and 3D optical lattices in a large parameter regime in phase diagram. These FFLO phases are stable with imposing the inhomogeneous trapping potential…
We calculate the pair susceptibility of an attractive spin-polarized Fermi gas in the normal phase, as a function of the pair momentum. Close to unitarity, we find a strong enhancement of Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) pairing fluctuations over an extended region of the temperature-polarization phase diagram, which manifests itself as a pronounced peak in the pair-momentum distribution at a finite pair momentum. This peak should be amenable to experimental observation at achievable temperatures in a box-like trapping potential, as a fingerprint of FFLO pairing. Our calculations rest o…
Comment on "Spectral Signatures of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov Order Parameter in One-Dimensional Optical lattices" M. Reza Bakhtiari, M. J. Leskinen, and P. Törmä, Phys. Rev. lett. {\bf 101}, 120404 (2008).
We propose a two-step experimental protocol to directly engineer Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) states in a cold two-component Fermi gas loaded into a quasi-one-dimensional trap. First, one uses phase imprinting to create a train of domain walls in a superfluid with equal number of $\uparrow$- and $\downarrow$-spins. Second, one applies a radio-frequency sweep to selectively break Cooper pairs near the domain walls and transfer the $\uparrow$-spins to a third spin state which does not interact with the $\uparrow$- and $\downarrow$-spins. The resulting FFLO state has exactly one unpair…
Based on the matrix product states method, we investigate numerically the ground state properties of one-dimensional mixtures of repulsive bosons and spin-imbalanced attractive fermions, the latter being in the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state, where Cooper pairs condense at a finite momentum $k=k_{FFLO}$. We find that the visibility of such a state is dramatically enhanced as the repulsive Bose-Fermi mixture is brought close to the phase-separation point. In particular, large amplitude self-induced oscillations with wave-vector $2k_{FFLO}$ appear in both the fermion total density…
Pairing in an attractively interacting two-component Fermi gas in the absence of the inversion symmetry and/or the time-reversal symmetry may give rise to exotic superfluid states. Notable examples range from the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state with a finite center-of-mass momentum in a polarized Fermi gas, to the topological superfluid state in a two-dimensional Fermi gas under Rashba spin-orbit coupling and an out-of-plane Zeeman field. Here, we show that a topological FFLO state can be stabilized in a two-dimensional Fermi gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling and both in-plane …
The exotic Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) states have been actively searched for experimentally since the mean-field based FFLO theories were put forward half a century ago. Here we investigate the stability of FFLO states against unavoidable pairing fluctuations, and conclude that FFLO superfluids cannot exist due to their intrinsic instability in three and two dimensions. This explains their absence in experimental observations in both condensed matter systems and the most recent, more promising ultracold atomic Fermi gases with a population imbalance.
We study the single-plane-wave Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrell (LOFF) states for BCS--Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover at general temperatures $T$. Because we include the important effects of noncondensed pairs, our $T \neq 0$ phase diagrams are different from those reported in earlier work. We find that generalized LOFF phases may be the ground state for a wide range of (weak through moderately strong) interactions, including the unitary regime. However, these LOFF phases are readily destroyed by non-zero $T$.
We consider the density response of a spin-imbalanced ultracold Fermi gas in an optical lattice in the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state. We calculate the collective mode spectrum of the system in the generalised random phase approximation and find that though the collective modes are damped even at zero tempererature, the damping is weak enough to have well-defined collective modes. We calculate the speed of sound in the gas and show that it is anisotropic due to the anisotropy of the FFLO pairing, which implies an experimental signature for the FFLO state.
We study superconducting properties of population-imbalanced ultracold Fermi mixtures in the honeycomb lattice that can be effectively described by the spin-imbalanced attractive Hubbard model in the presence of a Zeeman magnetic field. We use the mean-field theory approach to obtain ground state phase diagrams including some unconventional superconducting phases such as the Fulde--Ferrell--Larkin--Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase. We show that this phase is characterized by atypical behaviour of the Cooper pairs total momentum in the external magnetic field. We show that the momentum changes its valu…
We study spin imbalance effects on the Larkin-Ovchinikov-Fulde-Ferrel (LOFF) state relevant for superconductors under a strong magnetic field and spin polarized ultracold Fermi gas. We obtain the exact solution for the condensates with arbitrary spin imbalance and the fermion spectrum perturbatively in the presence of small spin imbalance. We also obtain fermion zero mode exactly without perturbation.
The topological superfluids with Majorana zero modes have not yet been realized in ultracold atoms with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Here we show that these phases can be realized with an artificial gauge potential, which can be regarded as a site-dependent rotating Zeeman field. This potential breaks the inversion symmetry and plays the same role as Rashba spin-orbit coupling. In the inverted bands, this model can open a proper parameter regime for topological superfluids. Strikingly, we find that the interaction near the Fermi surface is dominated by the dispersion scattering in the same band…
We consider a two-component Fermi gas in the presence of spin imbalance, modeling the system in terms of a one-dimensional attractive Hubbard Hamiltonian initially in the presence of a confining trap potential. With the aid of the time-evolving block decimation method, we investigate the dynamics of the initial state when the trap is switched off. We show that the dynamics of a gas initially in the Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state is decomposed into the independent expansion of two fluids, namely the paired and the unpaired particles. In particular, the expansion velocity of the un…
We study attractively interacting spin-1/2 fermions on the square lattice subject to a spin population imbalance. Using unbiased diagrammatic Monte Carlo simulations we find an extended region in the parameter space where the Fermi liquid is unstable towards formation of Cooper pairs with non-zero center-of-mass momentum, known as the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state. In contrast to earlier mean-field and quasi-classical studies we provide quantitative and well-controlled predictions on the existence and location of the relevant Fermi-liquid instabilities. The highest temperature …
We present a full phase diagram for the one-dimensional (1D) to three-dimensional (3D) crossover of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state in an attractive Hubbard model of 3D-coupled chains in a har- monic trap. We employ real-space dynamical mean-field theory which describes full local quantum fluctuations beyond the usual mean-field and local density approximation. We find strong dimensionality effects on the shell structure undergoing a crossover between distinctive quasi-1D and quasi-3D regimes. We predict an optimal regime for the FFLO state that is considerably extended to in…
We find that a model Hamiltonian of s-wave superconductors in the presence of spin-orbit interactions and a Zeeman field is exactly solvable. Most intriguingly, based on the exact solutions, an unconventional type of Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) ground state is rigorously revealed, in which the center-of-mass momentum of the fermion pair is proportional to the Zeeman field. We also elaborate on the drifting effect of the Zeeman field on the spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensate.
We study the phase diagram in a two-dimensional Fermi gas with the synthetic spin-orbit coupling that has recently been realized experimentally. In particular, we characterize in detail the properties and the stability region of the unconventional Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) states in such a system, which are induced by spin-orbit coupling and Fermi surface asymmetry. We identify several distinct nodal FFLO states by studying the topology of their respective gapless contours in momentum space. We then examine the phase structure and the number density distributions in a typical har…
We theoretically investigate the interplay between the fermionic mobile impurity atoms and a Larkin-Ovchinnikov (LO) superfluid in a two dimensional optical lattice. We find that the impurity atoms get localized and can form pairs when the interaction between the impurity atoms and the LO superfluid is strong enough. These features are due to the phenomena of self-localization whose underlying mechanism is revealed by an effective model. The impurity atoms with finite concentrations can drive the transition from a two-dimensional-checkerboard-like LO state to a quasi-one-dimensional-stripe-lik…
We study the phase diagram of fermionic polar molecules in a bilayer system, with an imbalance of molecular densities of the layers. For the imbalance exceeding a critical value the system undergoes a transition from the uniform interlayer superfluid to the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state with a stripe structure, and at sufficiently large imbalance a transition from the FFLO to normal phase. Compared to the case of contact interactions, the FFLO regime is enhanced by the long-range character of the interlayer dipolar interaction, which can combine the s-wave and p-wave pairing in…
The ground-state phase diagram of attractively-interacting Fermi gases in two dimensions with a population imbalance is investigated. We find the regime of stability for the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase, in which pairing occurs at finite wave vector, and determine the magnitude of the pairing amplitude $Δ$ and FFLO wavevector $q$ in the ordered phase, finding that $Δ$ can be of the order of the two-body binding energy. Our results rely on a careful analysis of the zero temperature gap equation for the FFLO state, which possesses nonanalyticities as a function of $Δ$ and $q$, i…
We study the interplay between the Zeeman field and spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in harmonically trapped Fermi gases loaded into a two-dimensional single-band tight-binding optical lattice. Using the Bogoliubov-de Gennes theory, we find that the Zeeman field combined with a Rashba SOC gives rise to $(i)$ Fulde-Ferrell-like superfluidity and $(ii)$ skyrmion-like polarization textures near the edges of the system. We also discussed the effects of interaction, temperature, SOC anisotropy and Zeeman field anisotropy on the superfluid ground state and polarization textures.
Ultracold two-component Fermi gases with a tunable population imbalance have provided an excellent opportunity for studying the exotic Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) states, which have been of great interest in condensed matter physics. However, the FFLO states have not been observed experimentally in Fermi gases in three dimensions (3D), possibly due to their small phase space volume and extremely low temperature required for an equal-mass Fermi gas. Here we explore possible effects of mass imbalance, mainly in a $^6$Li--$^{40}$K mixture, on the one-plane-wave FFLO phases for a 3D ho…
We examine the existence and characteristics of the exotic Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase in a one-dimensional Fermi gas with attractive Hubbard interactions, in the presence of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and Zeeman field. We show that a robust FFLO phase can be created in the presence of attractive on-site interactions and Zeeman field, and that the addition of SOC suppresses the FFLO order and enhances the pair formation. In absence of SOC, the system shows four phases: Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS), FFLO, multi- mode pairing and fully polarized phases by tuning the Zeeman fie…
The possibility of a Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state in a population imbalanced Fermi gas with a vortex is proposed. Employing the Bogoliubov-de-Gennes formalism we self-consistently determine the superfluid order parameter and the particle number density in the presence of a vortex. We find that as increasing population imbalance, the superfluid order parameter spatially oscillates around the vortex core in the radial direction, indicating that the FFLO state becomes stable. We find that the radial FFLO states cover a wide region of the phase diagram in the weak-coupling regime …
We study theoretically two spatially separate quasi-one-dimensional atomic Fermi gases in a double-well trap. By tuning independently their spin polarizations, a Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) superfluid or a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid may be formed in each well. We seek the possibility of creating a spatially tunable atomic Josephson junction between two superfluids, which is supposed to be realizable via building a weak link at given positions of the double-well barrier. We show that within mean-field theory the maximum Josephson current is proportional to the order …
By applying the recently proposed antisymmetric superfluid local density approximation (ASLDA) to strongly interacting polarized atomic gases at unitarity in very elongated traps, we find families of Larkin-Ovchinnikov (LO) type of solutions with prominent transversal oscillation of pairing potential. These LO states coexist with a superfluid state having a smooth pairing potential. We suggest that the LO phase could be accessible experimentally by increasing adiabatically the trap aspect ratio. We show that the local asymmetry effects contained in ASLDA do not support a deformed superfluid co…
The Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase was first predicted in 2D superconductors about 50 years ago, but so far unambiguous experimental evidences are still lacked. The recently experimentally realized spin-imbalanced Fermi gases may potentially unveil this elusive state, but require very stringent experimental conditions. In this Letter, we show that FFLO phases may be observed even in a 3D degenerate Fermi gas with spin-orbit coupling and in-plane Zeeman field. The FFLO phase is driven by the interplay between asymmetry of Fermi surface and superfluid order, instead of the interpl…
The Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) states, characterized by Cooper pairs condensed at finite-momentum are, at the same time, exotic and elusive. It is partially due to the fact that the FFLO states allow superconductivity to survive even in strong magnetic fields at the mean-field level. The effects of induced interactions at zero temperature are calculated in both clean and dirty cases, and it is found that the critical field at which the quantum phase transition to an FFLO state occurs at the mean-field level is strongly suppressed in imbalanced Fermi gases. This strongly shrinks th…
Motivated by recent experimental advances in ultracold atomic gases placed in cavities, we study the influence of the atom-cavity coupling on the Fermi gases trapped in optical lattices. By adiabatic elimination of the cavity photon field, the atom-cavity coupling gives rise to effective long-range interactions. It results in a variety of two-body scattering processes, during which the atomic pairs can acquire an additional center-of-mass momentum. This reveals the possibility of Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) superfluids in which the atomic pairing momentum is nonzero. By inspecting …
We consider a two-component gas of fermions in optical lattices in the presence of a population imbalance within a mean-field theory. We study phase transitions from a normal gas of unpaired fermions to a superfluid phase of Bose-condensed Cooper pairs. The possibility of Cooper pairs with a nonzero center-of-mass momentum is included, which corresponds to a so-called Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state. We find that for population imbalanced systems such states can form the ground state. The FF and LO state are compared and it is shown that actually the LO state is energetically more…
Novel dynamical excitations and roton-based measurement of Cooper-pair momentum in a two-dimensional Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov superfluid on optical lattices
Key Laboratory for Microstructural Material Physics of Hebei Province, School of Science, Yanshan University（河北工业大学微观结构物理重点实验室，理学院，燕山大学）；Centre for Theoretical and Computational Physics, College of Physics, Qingdao University（青岛大学物理学院理论计算物理中心）；School of Physics and Astronomy, Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学物理与天文学院）
Stable non-equilibrium Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state in a spin-imbalanced driven-dissipative Fermi gas loaded on a three-dimensional cubic optical lattice
We deduce an expression for the critical polarization P_C below which the FFLO-state emerges in one-dimensional lattices with spin-imbalanced populations. We provide and explore the phase diagram of unconfined chains as a function of polarization, interaction and particle density. For harmonically confined systems we supply a quantitative mapping which allows to apply our phase diagram also for confined chains. We find analytically, and confirm numerically, that the upper bound for the critical polarization is universal: P_C^{max}=1/3 for any density, interaction and confinement strength.
We investigate the inhomogeneous Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) and homogeneous Sarma superfluid states in alkaline-earth-like $^{173}$Yb atomic gases near an orbital Feshbach resonance at zero temperature with population imbalances in both the open and closed channels (or bands). We find that in homogeneous space by adjusting the open-channel Zeeman energy $h_o$, both the Sarma and Fulde-Ferrell superfluid states are greatly enhanced by the spin-exchange interaction while the closed-channel Zeeman energy $h_c$ remains small. In the presence of an external harmonic trap, the trapped g…
We study pairing states in an largely imbalanced two-component Fermi gas loaded in an anisotropic two-dimensional optical lattice, where the spin up and spin down fermions filled to the $s$- and $p_x$-orbital bands, respectively. We show that due to the relative inversion of band structures of the $s$ and $p_x$ orbitals, the system favors pairing between two fermions on the same side of the Brillouin zone, leading to a large stable regime for states with finite center-of-mass momentum, i.e., the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state. In particular, when the two Fermi surfaces are close…
The Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase, a superconducting state with non-zero total momentum Cooper pairs in a strong magnetic field, was predicted more than 50 years ago and now becomes an important concept in many branches of physics. However, no unambiguous experimental evidences for the existence of FFLO phases have been observed yet. Recently, spin-imbalanced ultracold degenerate Fermi gases have emerged as a new powerful platform for the observation of FFLO phases due to their high experimental controllability and the lack of disorder. However, in three dimensional degenerate …
We present an extensive study of two-dimensional Larkin-Ovchinnikov (LO) superfluidity in a spin-imbalanced two-component atomic Fermi gas. In the context of Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin- Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase, we explore a wide and generic class of pairing gap functions with ex- plicit spatial dependency. The mean-field theory of such phases is applied through the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations in which the pairing gap can be determined self-consistently. In order to systemat- ically explore the configuration space we consider both the canonical and grand canonical ensembles where we control the p…
We study the interplay between the long- and short-range interaction of a one-dimensional optical lattice system of two-component dipolar fermions by using the density matrix renormalization group method. The atomic density profile, pairing-pairing correlation function, and the compressibility are calculated in the ground state, from which we identify the parameter region of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) pairing state, half-metal (HM) state, FFLO-HM state, and the normal polarized state, and thus the phase diagram in the coordinates of the long- and short-range interaction streng…
Within the renormalization group framework we study the stability of superfluid density wave states, known as Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phases, with respect to thermal order-parameter fluctuations in two and three-dimensional ($d\in \{2,3\}$) systems. We analyze the renormalization-group flow of the relevant ordering wave-vector $\vec{Q_0}$. The calculation indicates an instability of the FFLO-type states towards either a uniform superfluid or the normal state in $d\in\{2,3\}$ and $T>0$. In $d=2$ this is signaled by $\vec{Q_0}$ being renormalized towards zero, corresponding to th…
We theoretically explore a promising route to achieve the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state in a spin-imbalanced ultracold Fermi gas. In the current stage of cold atom physics, search for this exotic Fermi superfluid is facing two serious difficulties: One is the desperate destruction of the FFLO long-range order by FFLO pairing fluctuations, which precludes entering the phase through a second-order transition, even in three dimension. The other is the fierce competition with the phase separation into the BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer) state and the spin-polarized normal state. In…
We study Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) transitions of the Larkin-Ovchinnikov (LO) phase for a two-dimensional system composed of coupled one-dimensional tubes of fermions. The LO phase here is characterized by a stripe structure (periodic in only one direction) in the order parameter. The low energy excitations involve the oscillation of the stripe and the fluctuation of the phase, which can be described by an effective theory composed of two anisotropic XY models. We compute from a microscopic model the coefficients of the XY models from which the KT transition temperatures are determined. We foun…
Recently a scheme has been proposed for generating the 2D Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling (SOC) for ultracold atomic bosons in a bilayer geometry [S.-W. Su et al, Phys. Rev. A \textbf{93}, 053630 (2016)]. Here we investigate the superfluidity properties of a degenerate Fermi gas affected by the SOC in such a bilayer system. We demonstrate that a Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state appears in the regime of small to moderate atom-light coupling. In contrast to the ordinary SOC, the FFLO state emerges in the bilayer system without adding any external fields or spin polarization. As the …
Coherent coupling generated by laser light between the hyperfine states of atoms, loaded in a 1D optical lattice, gives rise to the "synthetic dimension" system which is equivalent to a Hofstadter model in a finite strip of square lattice. An SU(M) symmetric attractive interaction in conjunction with the synthetic gauge field present in this system gives rise to unusual effects. We study the two- body problem of the system using the T-matrix formalism. We show that the two-body ground states pick up a finite momentum and can transform into two-body resonance like features in the scattering con…
Moiré superlattices in twisted bilayer graphene and transition-metal dichalcogenides have emerged as a powerful tool for engineering novel band structures and quantum phases of two-dimensional quantum materials. Here we investigate Moiré physics emerging from twisting two independent hexagonal optical lattices of atomic (pseudo-)spin states (instead of bilayers), which exhibits remarkably different physics from twisted bilayer graphene. We employ a momentum-space tight-binding calculation that includes all range real-space tunnelings, and show that all twist angles $θ\lesssim 6^{\circ }$ can b…
In three dimensional Fermi gases with spin imbalance, a competition exists between Cooper pairing with zero and with finite momentum. The latter gives rise to the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) superfluid phase, which only exists in a restricted area of the phase diagram as a function of chemical potential imbalance and interaction strength. Applying an optical potential along one direction enhances the FFLO region in this phase diagram. In this paper, we construct the phase diagram as a function of polarization and interaction strength in order to study the competition between the FF…
Motivated by a realization of imbalanced Feshbach-resonant atomic Fermi gases, we formulate a low-energy theory of the Fulde-Ferrell and the Larkin-Ovchinnikov (LO) states and use it to analyze fluctuations, stability, and phase transitions in these enigmatic finite momentum-paired superfluids. Focusing on the unidirectional LO pair-density wave state, that spontaneously breaks the continuous rotational and translational symmetries, we show that it is characterized by two Goldstone modes, corresponding to a superfluid phase and a smectic phonon. Because of the liquid-crystalline "softness" of …
We review the concepts and the present state of theoretical studies of spin-imbalanced superfluidity, in particular the elusive Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state, in the context of ultracold quantum gases. The comprehensive presentation of the theoretical basis for the FFLO state that we provide is useful also for research on the interplay between magnetism and superconductivity in other physical systems. We focus on settings that have been predicted to be favourable for the FFLO state, such as optical lattices in various dimensions and spin-orbit coupled systems. These are also th…
In ultracold Fermi gases, the effect of spin-imbalance on superfluidity has been the subject of intense study. One of the reasons for this is that spin-imbalance frustrates the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid pairing mechanism, in which fermions in different spin states combine into Cooper pairs with zero momentum. In 1964, it was proposed that an exotic superfluid state called the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state, in which the Cooper pairs have nonzero momentum, could exist in a spin-imbalanced Fermi gas. At the saddle-point (mean field) level, it has been shown that t…
